Michael Andersen @andersem Twitter profile

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Michael Andersen

1 year

You can subscribe to Sightline's occasional (or if you prefer, daily) newsletters at Or just to my own articles here if you are my mom or something:

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

@CBPMarkMorgan "The deployment of unidentified federal officers is particularly dangerous in a situation like that in Portland and elsewhere in America, because it could easily lead to right-wing militias’ impersonating legal authorities and kidnapping citizens."

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

Oregon just voted to legalize fourplexes in all areas of every large city, duplexes on almost every urban lot. A historic achievement, first bill of its kind in US history.

Oregon Just Voted to Legalize Duplexes on Almost Every City Lot

The bill, which would also legalize fourplexes and cottage clusters in larger cities, cleared both House and Senate with wide, bipartisan majorities.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Portland's council just unanimously approved new updates to its low-density zoning code, a fast follow-up on 2020's landmark vote to re-legalize 4plexes & mixed-income 6plexes citywide. We didn't get everything right the first time around! This project makes 6 great changes:

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

Why re-legalize #FourFloorsAndCornerStores ? One reason is that there's not a ton of difference in energy use per person between a neighborhood that looks like this...

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Uh so, as of today Washington looks on track to: 🏨allow 5-story apartment buildings within 3/4 mile of rail/BRT stops & 1/2 mile of frequent bus stops 🏢 within 1/4 mile, go bigger still 🏘️ allow 2 ADUs per residential lot 🏡🏡 allow all urban lots of 4,000sqft+ to split

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

pleased to announce my new kink: 3-story, 12-18 unit apartment buildings on 5,000 square foot lots

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

@CBPMarkMorgan "As former CIA counterintelligence analyst Aki Peritz notes, “All it takes is one of these similar-kitted out militiamen groups to start grabbing folks off the street as well...for there to be huge, possibly violent pushback...This hurts the police & the citizenry.”"

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

that's a transpo bureau that claims to be broke, removing a new bike lane from a street designated years ago as a city bikeway because it connects to the city's biggest destination for working-class jobs without announcing the removal

PBOT plans to remove new bike lanes on NE 33rd

The reason appears to be that insufficient notice was given to the neighborhood.

bikeportland.org

Quale Whale (no such issue)

@jchris

1 year

@BikePortland “Portland means progress.”

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Map by @AEI of areas no more than a 10min walk from at least 6 restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, hardware stores, and/or drugstores. Apparently there are two ways for a Portland neighborhood to not have walkable retail: 1. be uniformly poor 2. be uniformly rich

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

This morning, after years of work by hundreds of Portlanders, 4plexes, mixed-income 6plexes, double ADUs, big group homes & backyard RVs became legal almost everywhere in town. I got @nbrhoodwrkshop & @alfred_twu to help show what's likely to happen next.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

Another way to say it: going from Houston to Frankfurt is a lot more important than going from Frankfurt to Hong Kong.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

If you'd like a fresh example of how zoning (a simple & fine idea) has become a micromanaging busybody that's accidentally tearing gashes in our civilization, here's one (thread)

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

Ok, I got the data! Portland land use in 100 emojis: 🏢🏢🏢🏬🏬🏬🏪🏪🏪🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏠🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🏭🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🏥🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️🛣️

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

Many folks think upzoning = more homes, therefore enough upzoning = enough homes. As a zoning reformer, I'm sad to say this isn't how it goes. This is wrong for the same reason 4plex legalization doesn't = immediate transformation of every low-density street. (short thread)

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

...but both of them are dramatically more energy-efficient than a neighborhood that looks like this.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

It saddens me to report that this European vacation is making me weary of every tiny-baby attempt by American cities to be cities

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Yes that's a bipartisan bill in WA, sponsored by the senate transpo chair, to make the most of public transit investments by lifting the bans on mid-size apartment buildings within 3/4 mile of frequent transit

The Vast Potential of Pairing Transit and Homes in Washington State

SB 5466 could support hundreds of thousands of needed new homes closer to where residents work, learn, and recreate.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

10 months

The numbers are in: 2023 was another year of exponential growth for parking reform. 18 more North American cities removed mandates, including Austin; Durham; Duluth; Charlottesville; Burlington; & 13 Oregon cities complying with new state rules. 🏡🚶🌲

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

Here's a real estate brokerage bragging that Portland's affordability mandate for new apartments is driving up rents & landlord profits by shielding landlords from new competition i.e. from new buildings

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

But even in a rosy scenario, letting teenagers learn in otherwise empty college classrooms across the street SHOULD NOT REQUIRE AN EMERGENCY ACTION BY CITY COUNCIL or whatever.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

6 years

It would be sort of cool if, for the next few weeks, you would email scooters @wweek .com every time you see someone do something potentially fatal with a car

Willamette Week

@wweek

6 years

See an e-scooter going the wrong way down a city street? Did you use one to flee the PDX traffic jams? Got a photo of people riding without helmets? Want to complain about them beeping all night outside your house? Send tips to scooters @wweek .com. 🛴

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

7 years

If you're OK w/ self-driving cars that don't stop for "jaywalkers" then you're OK w/ self-driving cars that don't stop for kids & pets who don't know the law

Tom Randall

@tsrandall

7 years

The pedestrian tried to cross in the middle of the road, outside the crosswalk

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

2) Fully legalizes cottage clusters. I'm biased, I live in one myself! But til now, to build one you had to do a custom negotiation with bureaucrats & risk being dragged through court by nearby homeowners. Few builders will risk that, so few exist.

Cottage clusters: Portland’s chance to build community in a new way

Oddly, the city has proposed not to encourage a popular concept: handfuls of cottages that surround a common yard

medium.com

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

6 years

House Bill 2001, Oregon's statewide legalization of missing-middle homes, just passed unanimously out of committee. In larger cities & counties, legalizes duplexes on every low-density lot; legalizes triplexes, quads & cottage clusters in every zone.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

Maine votes to re-legalize duplexes & ADUs statewide, plus up to fourplexes in designated "growth areas" 3rd state to do so after OR & CA

Ryan Fecteau 🇺🇸🌲

@SpeakerFecteau

3 years

Maine Senate just passed LD 2003 with a strong 20-13 vote. ✨🏘

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Good morning, 2023. In urban & suburban Oregon, it's no longer illegal to create a home or a job; to reactivate an old vacant building; or to just depave part of your property without having to provide more auto parking than you actually need.

Oregon Just Slashed Parking Mandates. 5 Things That Might Happen Next

From more historic building renovations to smarter curbside parking management, two-thirds of Oregonians are about to experience the benefits of making more asphalt optional.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

1) Legalizes townhomes citywide. You know townhomes from such classic cities as Baltimore and Paris. If you want to own a smaller lot that shares its structure with neighbors, you can - no need to rent to save $. Our new code even lets them go "sideways" on midblock lots. Yuss.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

For about $10,000, you can own it. It can turn parking lots to villages, then back again. It can go anywhere with you. But our laws almost always ban the simple home on wheels. Today Sightline asks: why? 👀

We're Wildly Underestimating the Potential of Mobile Housing

For about $10,000, you can own it. It can turn parking lots to villages, then back again. It can go anywhere with you. But our laws almost always ban the simple home on wheels.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

I hope this is a life-changing moment for the guy, and also that every media report mentions that his runoff opponent @sarah2020 has faced the gas, including his, many nights

Mike Baker

@ByMikeBaker

4 years

Mayor Wheeler with eyes closed, coughing, suffering from the tear gas. "How does it feel, Teddy?" someone shouts.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

I've also written about this here: The Best-Kept Secret of Dutch Biking: The Dutch Hardly Bike at All

The Best-Kept Secret of Dutch Biking: The Dutch Hardly Bike at All | PeopleForBikes

Here is perhaps the most shocking chart in all of Dutch transportation:

www.peopleforbikes.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

No law should require someone to pay for parking spaces they don't need. Oregon just slashed parking requirements statewide. First state-level action of its kind in US history ❤️🌎🏘️

Oregon Just Ended Excessive Parking Mandates On Most Urban Lots

A 2019 law legalizing

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

It took us 10 years, but we wrestled back this terrible decision and then kept pushing. Today, Portland's city council unanimously voted to cut the last vestiges of mandatory auto parking from city code. 🎉🎉🎉

Portland Afoot

@PortlandAfoot

12 years

It's official: PDX council will require renters to pay for auto parking, like it or not, so homeowners don't have to http://t.co/5V9mu44jcd

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

Portland's city council is about to unanimously amend its fourplex legalization to make it even better: a "deeper affordability" amendment to legalize mixed-income sixplexes on any lot in the city. Unthinkable a few years ago. What a shift. Final vote on package in a few weeks.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

6) Sideways sixplexes. Affordable housers have heard loud & clear from their buyers: apartment buildings shouldn't be our only option. 4-6plexes hitting price targets for at least 1/2 of homes will now be able to offer porches & private yards - including for ownership via condo.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

3) Legalizes back-lot homes. Many people dislike demolition of usable small homes. It's the No. 1 complaint every city hears about re-legalizing duplexes. Fair point! So Portland just legalized backyard homes (bigger than ADUs) with a lot split option.

Backyard Homes Are Great for Owners of Small Homes

In Portland, almost one in six residential lots has a small detached home. Many of those 23,486 backyards would be great spots for more homes—if they were legal.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

This is one of a million ways well-intentioned zoning rules have clogged the arteries of our society's common sense. We've self-ossified. It stops us from helping each other out: quickly building publicly funded housing. Letting someone rent a parking space across the street.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

@RottenInDenmark What is this? A wildfire for ANTS?

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

This is sort of a crazy chart from @OregonDEQ that can be summed up as "detached housing seems to be bad for the environment by every metric we could think of"

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

6 years

As a former suburban development reporter, I feel qualified to say that “level of service” is the biggest mandatory-suburbanization policy you’ve never heard of

Streetsblog USA

@StreetsblogUSA

6 years

California finally gets rid of "level of service" -- a backward rule that counted any project that resulted in slower car trips as a negative for the environment.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

4) Eliminates barriers to double ADUs. Portland's old, tight ADU rules were written for a world where single-detached zoning was sacred. In our state it's now illegal. Since that cat has now left the bag, we removed some rules that limit ADUs based on size of main house.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

...and one that looks like this...

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

give the subsidy cash to the tenants, not the landlords Like in Canada, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, UK, Taiwan, Australia, NZ…

Aaron Carr

@aaronAcarr

2 years

California, festering hotbed of housing voucher discrimination. My lord.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

I freakin love bus lanes. Here's a DIY presentation I gave a couple years ago that attempts to explain why:

science of bus lanes

Out of Our Way: The Spatial and Social Science of Bus Lanes Michael Andersen @andersem

docs.google.com

Willamette Week

@wweek

5 years

In 18 months, Portland streets could see the most dramatic change in public transit since the arrival of the streetcar. All it will take is gallons of red paint.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Good morning! It's a big day in Oregon as our state land use board prepares to vote on the largest cut to parking mandates in modern US history. In state's 8 largest metros, mandatory auto parking would no longer be a meaningful barrier to homes & jobs.

Oregon Nears Green Light for Big Parking Reform

The state land use board provisionally approved the rules but left room for tweaks by July.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Folks often say landlording isn't a real job but that's half wrong. It's hard & valuable. The part that's not a real job is landOWNING. The issue isn't property management. It's the rivers of unearned gold that flow to ALL landowners, including landlords, when homes are scarce.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

For 100 years, apartment bans have been a powerful force for segregation & separation. Portland has been starting to lift them - but depending on what happens Nov. 3, faux "historic" districts could step smoothly in as the new exclusionary zoning.

Bogus "Historic" Districts: The New Exclusionary Zoning?

In Portland, 2021 might go down in history as beginning the next phase of economic and racial segregation, starring historic districts.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

9 months

Portland city council just voted unanimously to: 1) fully fund its inclusionary housing policy 2) refocus the program on less expensive homes, for folks making about half the median income Effect should (eventually) be a big uptick in mixed-income apartment buildings. 🎉🎉

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

5) Family-size 4plexes. Our big 2020 concession to NIMBYs was the same as in Minneapolis & Vancouver: a tight cap on building size (aka floor area ratio). Ours was a bit less tight & is now even less: 4 homes up to 1k sqft each on a standard lot.

Eliminating Single-Family Zoning Isn't the Reason Minneapolis Is a YIMBY Success Story

Minneapolis appears to be a YIMBY (Yes in my backyard) success story of relaxed zoning regulations leading to increased housing production and declining

reason.com

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

Second and final section of this thread, and the the thing I didn't realize AT ALL about bus lanes until I did that presentation: Bus lanes that double the *speed* of buses also double the *frequency* of buses.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

7. Instead, starting one year from now, current plan is relocate the student body for 3 years to another high school a 19-minute drive (and a 56-minute bus journey) away 🤯 good thing schools don't face attendance or graduation challenges these days

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

What we need most is simplicity. But that requires politicians & public employees to say "there are a lot of things we don't actually need to control," and it requires members of the public to back them up.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

@AaronLChin @drschweitzer Madison: *noncommittal grunt, continues to “click” his way down a Wikipedia hole*

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

In its first self-assessment of its 2021 zoning reform, City of Portland concludes that townhome & ADU production "have increased dramatically"

New study shows promising housing production results from the Residential Infill Project (RIP)

A year after new rules governing single-dwelling zones went into effect, middle housing and accessory dwelling unit (ADU) production have increased dramatically.

www.portland.gov

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Here's a chart that permanently changed how I think about NYC metro. Downtown Manhattan is at the left of the chart; further out is to the right. Up/down is number of homes in each ring of distance from city center. Orange line is 1990, brown is 2012.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Good morning especially to the 37,000 households who'll one day sleep & laugh & kiss & watch TV in homes made possible by Oregon's new parking reform The figure is 10% of @GovTinaKotek 's 10-year housing target... and that's in the Portland suburbs alone

With Flexibility Over Parking, Oregon Homebuilders Get to Work

Tens of thousands of homes are now more buildable, including several projects that local parking mandates had previously killed.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

Got many thoughts about my friend @sarahforpdx 's heroic mayoral campaign, but the one to share here is: She ran on one of the most ambitious platforms Portland has ever seen & with a 5-point loss, she gave us the city's closest mayoral finish since at least 1948.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

You may have heard that Portland recently re-legalized 4plexes & other middle housing citywide. But is anybody actually building them? And at what prices? I'm in @dwell today with the answer.

In Portland, Oregon, the Paths to Homeownership Are Multiplying

The city’s low-density zoning reform in August of last year opened the door to lot splits and smallplexes—and developers, homeowners, and lenders have gotten busy building.

www.dwell.com

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

I spent 5 years on a 4-person team trying to get the US to import 1 very simple idea (putting stuff between car & bike lanes). It worked, after 40 years of prior attempts, because we star-spangled it & avoided mentioning it came from anywhere else.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

@jbouie when this project comes up on my feed, I will never not share the best headline in housing policy history

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

One @alfred_twu illustration is worth (checks Wordpress) 1,528 words about the amazing thing my city is going to do tomorrow

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

5. Turns out that the city's "campus institutional" zone allows "colleges" but not "schools." "A school is not identified as an accessory use to a college," the city planning spokesperson tells me. (For the record, this situation is very not her fault; she's correct.)

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

@DeadmansPlayboy We shouldn't prevent anyone from having a bigger or a detached home! There are lots of detached homes in the neighborhood pictured. People should get to choose home size & type. That's why we should allow homes of all sizes to exist.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Oregon’s statewide land use board declared its support Thursday for rules that, among other things, reduce or remove parking mandates in 61 jurisdictions in the state’s eight largest metro areas.

Oregon Nears Green Light for Big Parking Reform

The state land use board provisionally approved the rules but left room for tweaks by July.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

what if I told you city councils shouldn't have to vote on buildings one at a time

Green Party of Vancouver

@VanGreens

3 years

Vancouver council approved 7,899 housing units in 2020, with 52% of units approved being rentals, including social, supportive, purpose-built rental housing and laneways. #vanpoli #vanre

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

11 months

10 years of rapid homebuilding in LA would: - bring down market rents 18%, which would - let the federal voucher program house 24% more Angelenos 20x bigger benefit to subsidized housing than doubling LIHTC so says this study via @danbertolet

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

Apartment bans are a “huge entitlement program for the benefit of the most entitled residents,” writes a group of people you may have heard of, the editorial board of the New York Times. Minneapolis’s re-legalization of triplexes “deserves wide emulation”

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

What happens when a small city like Fayetteville, Arkansas, makes commercial parking lots 100% optional? They did - in 2015. I’m excited to share @Citizen_Cate ’s latest, the first article I’m aware of to examine what’s happened since.

Sightline Institute

@Sightline

3 years

“The buildings I had identified as being perpetually and perhaps permanently unusable were very quickly purchased, redeveloped, and are in use right now”

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

6. Result: District concluded that because that because the zoning “could take years” to change, the college (at which many high school students have attended classes for years, it's one of the selling points of this high school) can't host the high school from 2024-27.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

I am in San Sebastián, Spain. Population 190k, about the same population as Salem, Ore. Pretty nice

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

I can only assume that every other housing nerd in the western hemisphere also gets asked every few weeks why we don't retrofit empty office buildings for apartments. Well, a bill getting its first hearing in Oregon tomorrow would actually help with that. But it needs help! 🧵

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

This is a brewing disaster for tenants across the US. Starting to build more apartments now will be too late to prevent the disaster, but it could at least end it.

Rick Palacios Jr.

@RickPalaciosJr

3 years

Good luck finding an apartment these days.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

What a legislative session in WA. Legal: - 2-6plexes - 2 ADUs (up to 1k sqft); fees cut, renter discrimination forbidden - safer small 1-stair apartment buildings Enviro review in comp plan, not at development Design review must be clear & objective

UPDATED: 50 Housing Bills and How They Fared in Olympia

In 2023, Washington state leaders considered dozens of bills across the critical policy pillars of supply, stability, and subsidy.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

6 years

Portland spent months analyzing the demolition-related displacement effects of its fourplex legalization proposal. Conclusion: it would reduce displacement by 28% citywide. #MissingMiddleOR

Portland’s Fourplex Legalization Would Reduce Displacement Almost Everywhere

And in the few places it wouldn't, shrinking plex sizes slightly could protect particular areas.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

Never been tear-gassed before, much less in the middle of a park-bench conversation about amendments to the Transportation System Plan “It’s not even - well, it’s 10” said @ambrown , pulling out his phone.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

@IDoTheThinking when this project comes up on my feed, I will never not share the best headline in housing policy history

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

A thing I didn't always realize about moving vehicles is that they don't just take up the space they seem to occupy. They also essentially take up the space in front of them -- the faster they're moving, the more space they eat up.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

The final & possibly most awesome thing about bus lanes is this: they make transit so much better that a virtuous cycle begins. Quicker trips -> more riders -> more people wanting to live & work near bus lines -> more stuff near bus lines -> more bus love -> more bus lanes /end

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

Quite a chart of US pedestrian deaths, from @schmangee .

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

Sometimes, when enough people with enough power get pissed, something changes. Usually, what they get is a targeted carveout - a special exception. A short term win, in exchange for even more complex rules in the long run.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

Yesterday an organization you have probably heard of, the United Nations, said local apartment bans are cooking the climate & need to end. Six annotated takeaways:

End Apartment Bans to Save the Planet, UN Climate Report Says

With six annotated takeaways for local housing policy.

www.sightline.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

Getting from Denver density to Montreal density saves a lot more energy than getting from Copenhagen density to Seoul density

Adam Tooze

@adam_tooze

3 years

Transport energy use varies dramatically with density of urban population. Data TUMI initiative via @SoberLook

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

I'm obsessed with ending parking mandates because they're the least bad of the above to remove. But you can see how hard the choices start to get after that!

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

4. UNfortunately (hey my sister and I used to play this game), the high school is in the IR zone and the community college is in the CI2 zone wait, what

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

6 years

Share of homes in Portland with more than 2 bedrooms: 46% Share of Portland households with more than 2 people: 32% In Seattle it's 37%/26%. Nationally it's 61%/39%. We need to keep building some larger homes, but our main shortage is of smaller ones.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

The above relied on lots of work by some of my favorite bureaucrats, plus outside advocates like @PNWelcome , @habitatportland , @MadelineKovacs for the Build Small Coalition, @DisabilityRtsOR & us at @Sightline . And of course Portland's planning commission, council & their staff.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

none of these bills have passed both houses yet but all have overwhelming bipartisan support in the first house

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

Maybe the single most important part of getting people to re-legalize #MissingMiddle homes is showing pictures of them: duplexes, triplexes, quads, ADUs, cottages, garden apartments. That’s why I’m so proud to share @Sightline ’s new free photo library:

Sightline Institute: Missing Middle Homes Photo Library

Explore Sightline Institute: Missing Middle Homes Photo Library’s 443 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

In 2019, Oregon struck down 2 common local barriers to accessory dwellings: - mandatory off-street parking spaces - anti-renter discrimination This didn't affect Portland, the state's biggest ADU builder, because it had already ended both. For other cities, here's the effect:

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

@Jackkni08075977 @alex_zee @ZenothChipsune I’ve watched Alex cover boring ass city meetings for years man, she is definitely a reporter

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

10 months

Every few weeks, someone asks me if there's any good news about local housing. I tell them there is and they are surprised.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

8. Most of this comes from @RManning47 's excellent reporting for @OPB

Plan to relocate Jefferson High School students meets opposition from parents

Portland Public Schools officials say the only viable option for students during the three-year construction project is to be relocated 11 miles away to the Marshall campus.

www.opb.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

@davereaboi I don’t want to remove Lee’s statues because I despise any particular family. I want them gone because singling him out for honor today makes no sense in my country today.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

10 months

Great news from Portland today: on most buildable lots, its Housing Bureau is proposing to fully fund its mandate that rental buildings be mixed-income This should significantly boost construction of a) apartments, and b) below-market apartments

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

We’re headed for climate catastrophe partly cuz it’s a news story without a Selma bridge or 9/11 or immigrant toddler or Chaubin/Floyd video - the indelible, urgent images that change minds. One exception: deadly heat waves. So how do photo editors illustrate heat waves? Welp.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

2 years

Today, @GovTinaKotek signed this year's HB 2001, a fast-track omnibus package to address Oregon's long-term shortage of homes, especially lower-cost homes. It's the biggest rewrite of state housing law since 1973, written to last til 2073. But uh, what exactly does it do? 🧵

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

3. Fortunately, there's a community college campus right across the street. Many classrooms are available because the community college has gone heavily remote.

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

3 years

A really important recommendation in Portland's tentative equitable mobility plan: require employers to offer equal commute benefits to all their employees. If your workers get free parking, you also gotta offer equivalent $$ to those who don't use it.

Portland equitable mobility plan: Tax parking lots, require equal commute benefits - Parking Reform...

After meeting for eighteen months, Portland, Oregon’s Pricing Options for Equitable Mobility (POEM) Task Force issued it’s final recommendations which include: flexible commuter benefits (parking...

parkingreform.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

1 year

1. Portland high school (with a disproportionately Black student body) is up for a remodel, cool cool

Portland Public Schools board approves plan to renovate Jefferson High School

The Portland Public Schools board of director has approved a plan to modernize North Portland's Jefferson High School.

www.opb.org

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

4 years

I'm running 75% accuracy on this "Trump precinct or Biden precinct?" quiz using a single variable: sidewalks

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Michael Andersen

@andersem

5 years

For the NYT's #1619project , @KevinMKruse explored how sprawl is in some ways a deliberate tool for segregating us by race. But he didn't quite say *why* sprawl deepens segregation. One of the main reasons: low-density life is expensive by design.

Did Segregation Cause Your Traffic Jam?

Sprawl: Among other things, a deliberate attempt to enforce racial segregation with physical space.

www.sightline.org

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